Moebius syndrome is the name given to facial paralysis, and is characterized by an individual who is incapable of expressing their emotions or any kind of reaction through their face because of it. It is a rare congenital condition that only affects about 1 in 100,000 children at birth. Moebius syndrome typically results in total or near total paralysis of the face, including eyes that don’t blink.

The New York Times has the story of researcher Kathleen Bogart, who was disappointed to learn of the dearth of psychological research into this condition. Having it herself, she decided to help fill the gap, and began researching people with Moebius syndrome.

In a new study, the largest to date of Moebius syndrome, Ms. Bogart and David Matsumoto, a psychologist at San Francisco State, found that people with the disorder, whatever their social struggles, had no trouble at all recognizing others’ expressions. They do just as well as anyone else in identifying emotions in photographed faces, despite having no way to mimic.

The findings strongly suggest that the brain has other systems to recognize facial expressions, and that people with facial paralysis learn to take advantage of those.

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